Randall Zadar: Garden Art

Some collectors of my art may not be aware of my interest in rocks and stones. After moving into our current home, I would spend hours in the evening looking through the woods behind our home for stones and large rocks. Then dragging them into my backyard to arrange like sculptures.

Since 2007, I have been on a long journey perfecting the casting and production of cast stone products. My initial vision for this project was to create old cars to decorate gardens. I have always been fascinated with how cool junk cars look and the character of the rust over time. I thought to have something like that for gardens would be lots of fun and maybe a marketable item.

Randall Zadar

I have always trended towards quality materials and longevity, so concrete was the only real choice. Plus, as the stone ages in the weather, it produces a beautiful look that only Mother Nature can do.

The first project was of course the 1948 Tucker Car. I sculpted the car as large as possible out of clay. This was a giant first step coming from miniatures. I used basic tools and feel the piece came out pretty good all things considered. I made a mold and cast a few in concrete. You can see how time has placed a beautiful patina on the concrete.

Since that first project over seven years ago, I have learned much about what seems to be at first, an easy medium to work with. Anyone who has worked with concrete knows about the "weird science" behind this liquid stone. I have literally gone through hundreds of formulas and experiments. Plus I have had hundreds and maybe thousands of failures and rejects.

At some point I found the right mix and casting technique. Years of experiments and hard work has finally resulted in the rock solid castings I get today. Below is a brief journey of my pursuit of stone.

The Tucker project was lots of fun but the first thing I realized was the weight would be a big problem for shipping. The Tucker casting weighed 25 pounds. So I decided to create cars a little smaller. Here are some samples. These are a couple of pounds each.

I then decided to broaden the subject matter and offer a widerrange of products and styles.

After I sculpted, molded and cast about 50 different designs, I entered the Cleveland Home and Garden Show in 2009.

After the show, I experimented with some other colors and recipes for concrete.

One thing I learned from doing the Home and Garden Show is that weight was still a problem. Moving around a large quantity of sculptures was a lot of work. So I decided to try a different approach. This time I created a plaque that was thin and had two stainless steel rods in the bottom so you could just push the piece into the ground. The first designs were birds and marketed under the "American Gift Stone" name. You may have seen some of these in Wild Birds Stores.

The pieces could be displayed in the box that it came in.

After the American Gift Stone project, I tried to market some concrete sculptures for indoor use and for the giftware market.

Taking this mouse theme further and incorporating them into the plaque idea,
I started working on a series of holiday and special occasion themes.

Above is an example of the "Angel Series" I made for loved ones to place at gravesites or in a flower garden.

Below is one of the mouse plaques converted to a ground stone.